


through the cracks (making out what's make-pretend)

by noirshitsuji



Series: wild hearts [4]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternative Universe - Enemies, Angst, Battle, Confusion, Episode: s03 Rebrousse–temps | Backwarder, Gen, allyship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:26:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29028663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noirshitsuji/pseuds/noirshitsuji
Summary: If Ladybug’s the hero, then Chat must be the villain. Saying he's her nemesis is just another way of putting it; a tautology.(How is it, then, that she feels like only one of these is true?)Enemies!AU. Chat Noir is working with Backwarder. Allegedly.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: wild hearts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023714
Comments: 10
Kudos: 32





	through the cracks (making out what's make-pretend)

Ladybug has only ever had luck on her side, but today she feels like it might not be enough. Still, she closes her eyes briefly once she realises what the pipe’s purpose is, just enough to shoot a quick prayer to whoever may be watching over her. Her mind calms instantly; _right, I have a pocket-mini-god, don’t I?_ and then she’s off.

Chat Noir has his back turned towards her, but his leather ears twitch and he’s turned around before she can manage to take advantage of that.

“There you are, Bug,” he says in mock-cheerfulness. Then, he launches himself towards her and she has to side-step and yo-yo herself to the opposite side of the walk. 

“Should you really be that excited to see me, cat?” she asks, trying to muster up as much derision as she can in her smirk. She’s not one for shit-talking during battle, but she needs to maneuver him where she wants him _somehow._

“I’m not the one on a timer now, Ladybug,” Chat replies, smoothly, and then runs up to slash at her. 

They dance around each other like that for a minute or so more, Backwarder barely able to keep up with them, and Ladybug is ever so conscious of the seconds clocking by. She faints a stumble back to lure him in closer, and she sees his eyes shine, knows she’s caught him, when– 

“I _am_ getting bored of the location, though,” he says, and she thinks it is a complete non-sequitur for a second before remembering their previous conversation. 

She moves out to let him smash at a tree behind her when he adds: “Hm, if the catacombs are open, maybe we could move there?”

He moves to attack her again immediately, but there is something weird in the way he smashes his words together – as if he's saying _s'il catacombes_ and not _si les catacombes –_ that gives her pause for a moment before she backflips away from another attack and throws out her yo-yo to try and get him off balance.

Then, she registers his words, and it feels like her entire body thunders at the realisation. 

Chat has jumped back to the other side and is looking at her with a rare look of contempt. It looks performative, though, it looks–

–“Give it up, Bug, you don’t have much more time left–”

 _–fake_.

Backwarder nearly gets her from the back, but Ladybug drops down and sweeps her foot out, tripping the akuma so that it gets Chat instead.

His eyes widen for a second – too wide, too surprised – and he starts spouting gibberish as Ladybug sets off to dance around Backwarder in order to trick her into standing at just the right spot. Then, it’s only a matter of Ladybug throwing the pipe at her feet at the right moment to trip her up as she falls into Chat saying _-catac’l is, mh!_

The word is a bit distorted, but it works: the brooch is destroyed. Chat jumps back as the akuma fades away to reveal Madame Lenoir, and does nothing as Ladybug shoots out her yo-yo to purify the butterfly. After she lets it out, she sees him standing still in one place, that same ( _fake, fake, fake_ ) look of contempt in his eyes.

“My lady,” he says, going down in a sweeping bow, voice as poisonous as his eyes. There is a tension in his shoulders Ladybug doesn’t recognise. 

“Chat,” she says, and he straightens up immediately. She thinks she can see his face struggle not to fall. _Why?_ she wants to ask, but he turns around and vaults away just as her own earrings beep.

(And she clears up things with Madame Lenoir and tells the reporters – something, _a lucky charm is a lucky charm, –_ and she talks to Fu as well, as much as she can, but–

–she wouldn’t have won that battle without him.

Her nemesis.

 _Why?_ )

**Author's Note:**

> Also known as 'hey I got obsessed with the song in [this tiktok](https://www.tiktok.com/@ou.blaire/video/6915434066703617285?lang=en&is_copy_url=0&is_from_webapp=v2&sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6892101227698636294) and then with the duet version in [this one](https://www.tiktok.com/@ou.blaire/video/6915805443319221510?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v2) and had to write this _stat_ '. Title is a mash-up from lyrics both in that and from the [title track](https://genius.com/Mumford-and-sons-wild-heart-lyrics) for this series.
> 
> Note on how Chat contrived that Cataclysm: in French, 'if the catacombes (are open...)' is roughly something like 'si les catacombes (sont ouvertes...)'. 'Les' is sort of pronounced 'le' like 'lettuce', but he smashed it up so that the 'e' would be gone and hummed to get 'cataclysm' backwards ('sebmo- **catac-l-is-m** '). Syllables work a bit differently than that, but I think it would work in a realistic scenario ~~especially if Plagg is game on that side~~.
> 
> Comments make my day. You can also find me on [Tumblr.](https://noirshitsuji.tumblr.com/)


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